Generate PDF documents from a JSON defined structure
To use this library you must have TCPDF included in your PHP project: https://github.com/tecnickcom/TCPDF
// include TCPDF
include_once('./TCPDF_main/tcpdf_import.php');include_once('PDFParser.php');// load JSON template from file or variable
$JSONTemplateString = file_get_contents('samples/simple-a4.json');
// filename to be generated
$outputFilename = "document.pdf";
// instantiate PDFParser
$pdfParser = new PDFParser($JSONTemplateString, $outputFilename);
// OPTIONAL: set data array to be used
$pdfParser->setData([
"person-name" => "John Silver",
"person-address" => "Yellow Street 34",
"person-zipcode" => "34500",
"person-city" => "Liverpool",
"lines" => [
["barcode" => 1, "price" => 2],
["barcode" => 2, "price" => 3.45]
]
]);
// render PDF file
$pdfParser->render();Data to be used as variables on the template.
{
"type": "data",
"data": {
"field1": "Value of field 1",
"field2" : "Value of field 2"
}
}Data can be used on text strings using the following format: [[field1]] for example.
Page is the only required component, and must always be placed at the beginning of the JSON structure.
{
"type": "page",
"options": {
"format": "A4" // The values can be A4,A5,... and also [sizeX,sizeY],
"units": "mm",
"orientation": "P" // "P" for portrait or "L" for landscape,
"topMargin": 10,
"leftMargin": 10,
"rightMargin": 10,
"keepMargins": true, // overwrite default margins on all pages
"autoPageBreak": true,
"encoding": "UTF-8",
"printHeader": false,
"printFooter": false,
"rotation": 0,
"rotation_x": 0, // rotation pivot x coordinates
"rotation_y": 0 // rotation pivot y coordinates
}
}The header component will repeat itself at the beginning of new page.
{
"type": "header",
"children": [
// header components
]
}The details component accepts a data property that will iterate until the section height it's reached. After the height it's maxed a new page will be created in order to iterate the remaining data again.
{
"type": "details",
"data": "lines", // variable name to be iterated
"options":{
"x": 10,
"y": 50,
"margin": 4, // margin between each line
"height": 200, // section height per page
"row-height": 50, // static row height
"row-condition": "price > 0", // condition for row visibility using details data
"parent-join-column": "parent_data_column_name" // name of the parent column data to compare
"table-join-column": "data_column_name" // name of the current details column to join by with the parent column
"overflow-margin": 6, // when data aproaches this end margin generates new page
"group-by": "field_name", // group details using the specified field name
"line-break": true // if a line break should pe placed on each row end
},
"children": [
{
"type": "cell",
"data": "barcode" // sub variable to be used in each row column
},
{
"type": "cell",
"data": "price"
}
]
}The footer component will repeat itself at the end of each page.
{
"type": "footer",
"children": [
// footer components
]
}{
"type": "text",
"text": "Hello world! %d {{variable}}" // string to be shown, can be used %d for the data value
"data": "person_name" // data array index
"options": {
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"font-size": 12,
"font-family": "times",
"color": "#ff00ff",
"bg-color": "#0000ff",
"text-decoration": "B", // B-Bold, I-Italic, empty-none, can be used together
"rotation": 0,
"utf8": false, // force UTF-8 encoding
"html_decoding": true, // convert HTML entities to chars,
"group-header": false // only render on each details group header
}
}{
"type": "cell",
"text": "Hello world! %d {{variable}}" // string to be shown, can be used %d for the data value
"data": "person_name" // data array index
"options": {
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"width": 50,
"height": 5,
"border": 0, // 0-disable, 1-enable
"multiline": false,
"multiline-break": 0 // 0 - continues on the right, 1 - new line and beginning of the page, 2 - below
"font-size": 12,
"font-family": "times",
"color": "#ff00ff",
"bg-color": "#0000ff",
"text-align": "L" // L-left, R-right, C-center, J-justified
"text-decoration": "B", // B-Bold, I-Italic, empty-none, can be used together
"rotation": 0 // degrees,
"utf8": false, // force UTF-8 encoding
"html_decoding": true, // convert HTML entities to chars
"group-header": false, // only render on each details group header
"auto-width": false // set the cell width to the content
}
}{
"type": "image",
"src": "https://www.yoursite.com/image.png",
"options": {
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"width": 50,
"height": 5,
"border": 0,
"dpi": 300,
"resize": false,
"link": "",
"align": "",
"palign": "",
"fitbox": true, // auto image resize
"group-header": false, // only render on each details group header,
"use-cache": true, // control image cache in order to force refresh
}
}{
"type": "line",
"options": {
"x1" => 10,
"y1" => 10,
"x2" => 40,
"y2" => 10,
"width" => 0.1 // line width
"color" => [0,0,0], // RGB array
"group-header": false // only render on each details group header
}
}{
"type": "box",
"options": {
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"border-width": 0.1,
"border-color": [0,0,0],
"fill-color": [255,255,255],
"group-header": false // only render on each details group header
}
}{
"type": "ellipse",
"options": {
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"border-width": 0.1,
"border-color": [0,0,0],
"fill-color": [255,255,255],
"group-header": false // only render on each details group header
}
}{
"type": "barcode",
"content": "123456789012",
"data": "variable.field" // data array variable
"options": {
"type": "EAN13",
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"width": 50,
"height": 10,
"xres": 0.4,
"align": "N",
"group-header": false // only render on each details group header
"rotation": 0,
"position": "",
"textalign": "C",
"stretch": false,
"fitwidth": true,
"cellfitalign": "",
"border": true,
"hpadding": "auto",
"vpadding": "auto",
"fgcolor": [0,0,0],
"bgcolor": false,
"text": true,
"font": "helvetica",
"fontsize": 8,
"stretchtext": 4
}
}{
"type": "qrcode",
"content": "www.yoursite.com",
"data": "variable.field" // data array variable
"options": {
"x": 10,
"y": 10,
"dx": 10, // relative X position to the current X
"dy": 10, // relative Y position to the current Y
"detailsX": 10, // details row relative X
"detailsY": 10, // details row relative Y
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"group-header": false, // only render on each details group header
"border": true,
"vpadding": "auto",
"hpadding": "auto",
"fgcolor": [0,0,0],
"bgcolor": [255,255,255],
"module_width": 1,
"module_height": 1
}
}The group component will apply conditions to children elements
{
"type": "group",
"children": [
// group components
]
}{
"type": "font",
"font-family": "courier", // TCPDF font name
"font-decoration": "", // empty, B or I
"font-size": 12
}{
"type": "break",
"options" :{
"group-header": false,
"height": 4
}
}{
"type": "store-position",
"options" :{
"name": "store-name"
}
}Using this component the current X and Y are stored with the given name and can be accessed using the storedX and storedY options in the components.
// Usage example
{
"type": "cell",
"options": {
"storedX": "store-name",
"storedY": "store-name"
}
}{
"text": "{{current_date}}" // Current date: format YYYY-MM-DD
"text": "{{current_year}}" // Current year: format YYYY
"text": "{{current_month}}" // Current month: format MM
"text": "{{current_day}}" // Current day of the month: format DD
"text": "{{current_time}}" // Current time: format HH:mm:ss
"text": "{{page_number}}" // Current page number
"text": "{{total_pages}}" // Total document pages
"text": "{{current_copy}}" // Current document copy
"text": "{{document_copies}}" // Total number of document copies to be generated
"text": "[[max_y_DETAILSDATATABLE]]" //Global variable to obtain the actual selected table, DETAILSDATATABLE must be replaced by the details section data field value.
}Show only on first page.
{
"first_page": true, // show only on first page
"not_first_page": true, // show on all pages except first one
"last_page": true, // show only on the last page
"not_last_page": true, // not show on the last page
}{
"show-if": "item.type=='ITEM'" // compares variable value
"show-if": "company.phone_number" // check if variable has value
"show-if": "item.price > 5" // compare values
"show-if": "item.quantity <= options.required_minimum_purchase" // its possible to compare variables also
}{
"else": true // if the previous component is false this component will be shown instead
}
